Chinese mothers found themselves desperate to have their second child after New Year's Day. The new family planning law, which allows all couples to have two children took effect on Jan. 1, the Beijing Times reported.

A Chinese couple takes their two daughters to play in a park in Linfen City of north China’s Shanxi Province on Dec. 10, 2015. [File photo by Xinhua News Agency]

Babies born before and after New Year's Day are facing totally different fates. If a family's second child was born before midnight on Dec. 31, in a family that already has a child and doesn't meet the requirements which allow them to have two children, the baby would be deemed illegal as the one-child policy was still in effect, and its parents would have to pay a heavy fine. However, if the baby was born after midnight on Jan. 1, there would be no problem at all, as the new law allows all Chinese couples to have two children.

This made many mothers-to-be do everything they could to delay delivery until New Year's Day.

In the coastal city of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, a woman surnamed Yang gave birth to a baby girl at 2:46 a.m. on Jan. 1. "The pain started at around 3:00 in the afternoon, so for a while, I thought I couldn't wait until midnight," Yang said. To gain legal status for her baby, she remained motionless for nine hours to delay the delivery.

In Hui'an, a county under Quanzhou, a man surnamed Chen met his second child at 10:18 a.m. on Jan. 1. The baby was originally expected to be born on Dec. 27, but the whole family tried all they could to delay the delivery, or they would have to pay 80,000 yuan (US$12,288) for breaching the law. To celebrate the late birth, they nicknamed the baby Bawan, which stands for 80,000 yuan in Chinese.

In Licheng District in Quanzhou, a woman surnamed Wu was not that lucky. She gave birth to a baby boy at around 12:00 p.m. on Dec. 31. "I was told that the baby would come on Jan. 1," she said. "I never dreamed that it would come early." Due to the 12 hours, she had to pay a fine of about 100,000 yuan (US$15,360).

Under the previous family planning law, which took effect in 2002, parents were made to pay fines based on the family's income, as well as other factors, if they breached the law and gave birth to two children.

China introduced a family planning policy in the 1970s to curb the growing population and reduce pressure on resources and the environment. In 1980, the government started limiting most couples to one child. The grip gradually relaxed in the following decades. In 2013, China allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child.

In late December of 2015, Chinese lawmakers adopted an amended family planning law, allowing all couples to have two children to balance the country's population structure.

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